The Christmas Special

Almost everyone has gone to spend Christmas with family. Death makes an entrance. Sidus gets what he has always wanted. Good or bad?

A/N:

This is for you Eduardo/Kylie lovers out there! Specially StormyWolfBowler!

Thank you for your reviews!

= * =

The mailman trudged along the sludge-covered path and poked a stack of envelopes into the firehouse door slot.

Janine took the mail, shuffled through the bills and Christmas greeting cards from the insurance agencies, and went upstairs.

Egon, as usual, was studying for ectoplasmatic bases on a rock fragment that a past acquaintance had sent him.

"Hey Egon. We've got something from the old team."

Egon put down the piece of granite and opened the envelope to reveal a card. Egon looked over it once before passing it back to Janine. She looked through it as well.

"Let's go tell the kids."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

"A Senior G-Buster's Christmas Reunion?"

"That's what Peter called it. It's just a get-together party for us 'oldies'." Janine explained.

"Slimer was invited as well. So since he's coming along with us, we need at least one of you to stay and keep the firehouse maintained."

"I can't, sorry. My folks are expecting me to spend Christmas with them." Roland said.

"Mine too." Garrett added.

All eyes turned to Eduardo and Kylie.

"Sure we can stay."

"Settled then."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

That night, a while after the others had gone, Kylie joined Eduardo on the couch. "What's on?"

"A marathon of classic horror movies. Nothing special."

At that point, Sidus slunk out of the kitchen. He clambered onto an empty spot between the two humans and snuggled beside Kylie.

Eduardo frowned. "Dumb mutt."

Kylie sighed. "You're ridiculous! Just why do you hate each other so much?"

She got up to get water. Sidus immediately stood up.

"Stay." Kylie ordered, referring to the both of them. "Solve your differences."

Sidus turned his head to stare intensely at Eduardo. Then he snorted and plopped down again with his back to the Latino.

"Purebred or no, I still think you're a dumb mutt." Eduardo muttered.

The dog did not reply.

Eduardo glared at the dog's rump. He could visualize himself giving it a nice hard shove, but that would earn him a painful gnaw on his biceps. Not worth the trouble.

Kylie had a point. Why did he hate the dog so much? The fright and homework incident seemed too distant to stir anything up.

There were awful screeches coming from the set, but neither seemed to care.

"Why do you always pick on me, anyway?"

Still no answer came from the opposing party.

"You don't know how lucky you are." He grumbled. "Kylie's a cat person, and she's got a cat of her own. But you're with her with at least half the day every day. She's always taking your side, always feeding you, always talking to you, and what's more, she's always smiling at you. I'd give anything to be in your place."

"Whose place?"

"Gah!" Eduardo nearly fell over as Kylie came back into the living room. "Y-Y-Y-You heard everything I said?!"

"What did you say?" Kylie stared at him as though he had sprouted another head.

Eduardo turned beet red. "Nothing."

As though he were cutting Eduardo some mercy, the dog jumped off the couch and walked out into the next room. Now Eduardo was all alone with Kylie.

Kylie stared at the screen for a while and yawned. "Don't you find this boring?"

"Umm......I wasn't really paying attention....."

Eduardo wasn't about to admit that he had been spending the entire time looking at her.

Kylie shrugged. "Whatever." Then she yawned again.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

#Sidus POV#

I left Ky and the Stupid One as they were, side by side on the couch watching stuff blare out of the Flashy-Box.

As I remembered, there was this poor Two-Leg in a white mask with holes that first got buried by who-knows-who, and then he's surrounded by operatic screaming women.

I decided to leave the house for a while. All that shrieking from the Flashy-Box was giving me a headache.

Ky has a point: Why do I hate the Stupid One so much?

Does it have something to do with a past experience? I never knew him that long.

Or does it have to do with his attraction to Ky? But what has that got to do with me?

I'm so sick of the way my memory works.

Suddenly, the most terrible and vile odor wafts in front of my nose.

It is the pungent smell of death. Not of one, but of many.

A sudden hiss is followed shortly by an ice-cold gust of wind.

Another of the two-legged kind appears before me.

He wears a black robe that covers his entire body. His bold white head is withered and creased with age. Two large wings lay at rest upon his clothed back. His restless hand fingers the long lean pole of a scythe.

"We meet again, my boy."

Warning sirens blare in my head.

Why do I feel so uneasy?

Is this yet another Two-Leg I don't know, yet find vaguely familiar?

With a rustle of cloth, a withered hand resembling a bird's claw is held palm-down over my head. Unfeeling glass-like eyes stare straight in my being.

"ARISE!"

Everything starts to fade into the color of his robe.

All my muscles give out on me, and my brain goes numb from weariness.

What's going on?

#End of Sidus POV#

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Eduardo yawned and rubbed his eyes.

Yep. Those horror movies were indeed BOOO-RRRIIIIINNNNGGGG!

/ Guess that comes out of facing the real horrors every day. /

He turned his head the other way. "Hey K....Kylie?"

Kylie was leaning back against the couch with head drooped to one side. She was already in La-La Land.

Eduardo gently tapped her on the shoulder. "Kylie?"

[Ooh....Wrong Move.]

Kylie mumbled something in her sleep. Then she suddenly slid right, her head landing with a soft thud on Eduardo's lap. Not even near to acknowledgement on what she was doing, she sighed contentedly and curled up with feet facing the arm rest on the other side.

[I bet a lot of you E/K fans are singing Hallelujah about now.]

/ Uh oh. / Eduardo turned a dark shade of red that would have made the green grocer's ripest tomatoes go green with envy.

He was stuck in a dilemma: He could wake her up immediately, let her find out her current position, and face her wrath. Or he could just let her sleep until she woke, and still face her wrath.

He decided to go for the second option. That gave him a longer life-span.

/ Ah well. It's kinda nice, actually. It's not everyday a gorgeous babe sleeps on your - On no what am I THINKING?! Bad Boy, Eddie! Bad Boy! Bad Boy! /

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Grim Reaper smiled as the black body flopped to the floor, its spirit rising from it.

The spirit was that of a young man in his twenties. If he were alive, he would have had noticeable brown eyes and black hair.

He was apparently displeased at that point of time.

"Let us depart, Sidus Griffin." Death beckoned. "It Is Time."

The spirit stared at him, facial expression betraying complete amusement.

"Oh come on, give me a break sonny! I always wanted to say that!"

Sidus rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

The Grim Reaper turned to leave. "Okay, seriously, let's go."

"Like I told ya th' last time: I ain't goin nowhere."

"Still so stubborn." Death sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. This one gave him annual migraines. "Look here sonny, just make my job easier, will you? You're eight years due to the Pearly Gates already!"

"Ya know my answer. I'm not leavin'. I made a promise to my little Ky, an' I intend t' keep it."

"Kylie Griffin's a grown woman, my boy. She can take care of herself. She doesn't need you to constantly watch over her twenty-four hours a day."

"I know. But a promise is a promise, wouldn't ya agree?"

"Besides, I can tell that she and Eduardo Rivera have quite a future."

Sidus' eyes promptly narrowed. "All th' more I'm stayin'! I don't trust that stupid Latino for peanuts! I mean, will you take a second look at him?!"

"Ah-ha. You have sister complex." The Grim Reaper shook his head in defeat. "Very well! I'll make an exception, considering you're my most burdensome and tiring case yet. I'll let you be the 'wandering ghost' you are!"

He struck the spirit once with the blunt end of his scythe. Color rushed back into the translucent body. Within a matter of seconds, Sidus looked just looked like he had been the eight years ago.

Sidus smirked. "Y'know, ya could've saved yerself a lot o' trouble if ya had done this sooner."

"Oh hush." Death folded his arms and watched Sidus admire his new look. "I'm out of here. If your family finds out about you and seals you away in a box, don't come crying to me!"

As suddenly as he had made his entrance, the Man with the Scythe dissolved into the night air, off to claim the next one on his list.

Sidus half-saluted absentmindedly after him. He scooped up his limp body in his hands, and turned back toward the window. The sight within nearly made him drop his load.

"What th' hell.....? What are they DOING?!"

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

This wasn't good.

Then again, it didn't feel so bad either.

Eduardo poked his hamstring. His legs had fallen asleep a while ago, and he considered joining them.

He looked down at his sleeping teammate, whose head was still inconveniently across his thighs.

The bolder part of him suggested he sleep there and then, but the other wanted to grab said part, and paddle it for being naughty.

/ I give up. /

Eduardo gently raised Kylie's head off his lap, careful not to wake her in the process. Propping it up with a cushion, he got off the couch and walked out of the room, returning shortly with a blanket and covering the sleeping girl with it.

"Night Kylie." He mumbled. Then he trudged off to find somewhere else to turn in for the night.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Sidus waited for the Latino to leave. Then he gently carried his resident body across the living room.

Placing it under the kitchen table, he headed upstairs.

There was a certain Spaniard he needed to talk to, without waking his sister up.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Eduardo was nearly asleep when he felt something tingle his spine.

He creaked open one eye.

Then he backpedaled fifty feet.

A young spirit was hovering over his head and glaring at him.

Sidus rolled his eyes as Eduardo's searched the room for a proton gun or ghost trap. "Aw c'mon! Do I have th' words 'I'll Eat Ya If Ya Don't Shoot Me' shaved into the top of my head?"

"What Are You?! Who Are You?! What Do You Want?!" Eduardo tried to fend off the offensive-looking thing with his hands. "Everything is negotiable except for my life!"

"Quiet, youse. Ya'll wake Kylie." Sidus sighed and shook his head. "First, I'm a spirit that's as deadly as yer spud-cum-bottomless pit, Slimer. Second, it's none of yer business. Third, ya an' me need t' talk. T' conclude, both of us will be in full hit points, an' ya won't remember even seein' me."

Eduardo took a while to calm down and absorb everything. Then he shrugged. "Okay. Shoot." / This guy seems harmless enough. /

Sidus sat down on the chair he had been squatting on.

"So ya like Kylie, don't ya?"

Eduardo once again burned red.

Sidus shrugged. "Sue me. I'm usually kinda tactful, but I've only got till one."

Eduardo glared at the apparition. "Look, just what makes you so damn sure that I like Kylie?"

"Been watchin' ya since ya two started workin' here. Yer always 'hit me, hurt me, anything t' show ya dig me'." Sidus' eyes narrowed slightly. "Plus, I got t' see yer little episode in th' livin' room."

"That - That makes no sense at all!"

"Yer blushin', boy. Th' end justifies th' means."

Eduardo grunted and threw his hands up in frustrated surrender. "So okay, maybe I do like her. But what business is that of yours, anyway?"

"Find out in yer own time. I gotta go now." Sidus leaned forward and tapped Eduardo once on the forehead before he could retaliate. The mortal's eyes promptly rolled back, and he was back in his slumber.

As the spirit departed from the room, he added softly, "Merry Christmas, Rivera."

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The Next Morning...

Kylie awoke to the warm moist feeling of Sidus' rough wet tongue against her face. "Morning, boy."

The dog panted as it gazed fondly at her with its soft brown eyes.

"You seem pretty affectionate today." Kylie scratched the dog's ears as she moved the blanket to one side. / What am I doing on the couch? /

"Merry Christmas, Kylie."

"Oh. Same to you, Egon. Merry Xmas." Kylie got up and stretched. "When did you guys get back?"

"Somewhere around 1.30 am or later. Janine decided to sleep in, and I just woke up a little while before you did." Egon offered his student a mug of black coffee.

As Kylie accepted the beverage, she noticed a scarlet box secured with ribbon tucked under Egon's armpit. "What would that be?"

"This?" Egon smiled as he undid the wrapping. "You could say its a Christmas present from Janine and I, for all of us. Here, you can be the first one to look."

Egon lifted the cover, and brought out two shining tags. One held the Firehouse address and contact number. The other was a license tag. With a big grin, he bent down and strung them up beside the star on Sidus' medallion.

"Really? You mean it, Egon?" Kylie could not help but smile herself.

"No one answered the ad. Besides, I think we all have developed a soft spot for him. Wouldn't you agree?"

At that point, Eduardo came groggily down the stairs.

He stared down at the dog, noticed the additional tags, and groaned. "Someone tell me this is just a nightmare or something......"

"Okay. Maybe not all of us."

= * = * = * =